> Come late June (and mid-summer) when the weeds become fully grown, the bait’s no longer concentrated in isolated areas. Most is now living in or near the mature weed growth.

> [Cabbage weeds] provide the perfect place for bait and walleyes to get out of the sun and hide.

> Last July my friend Dave and I came across a beautiful patch of cabbage weeds. I told Dave we should try using an Off Shore to run a leech through the weeds.

> The water was crystal-clear and we needed to get the bait away from the boat in order to not spook the fish.

> Let your bait out at the desired depth, then clip the Off Shore Tackle In-line Side Planer Board onto your line, and it will run your bait to the side of the boat. The distance is determined by the amount of line you let out after clipping [the planer board] to your line.

> The cabbage was about 10′ under the surface of the water so we let out enough line that once we started to move the sinker would brush the top of the cabbage, allowing the leech to float just above it.

> Every once in a while the sinker would catch a leaf causing the whole rig to stall and then pop loose — ideal for triggering a bite if a fish is following your bait.

The bite is tough, but sticks like Mark Courts (1st) and John Hoyer (2nd) were able to put together 20-lb bags on day 1.

> We’re using a lot of bass-style crankbaits because they have such an aggressive dive – they get down there so fast. The new Berkley Dredger and Digger have been working great. We also caught some fish on live bait when the bite was slower.

…thanks to rather-specific language tucked into an economic development law:

> “…small resort businesses located in the city of Isle with less than $350,000 in annual revenue, at least four rental units, which are open during both summer and winter months, and whose business was adversely impacted by a decline in walleye fishing on Lake Mille Lacs.”

> In 2016, there were 5.9 deaths for every 100,000 registered recreational boats, a jump of 11.3% from the previous year. …alcohol was the leading known contributing factor in fatal boating accidents. Other factors included operator inattention, operator inexperience, improper lookout, excessive speed and machinery failure.

> Most boating-related deaths were caused by drowning (80%), and in 83% of those instances, the victim was not wearing a life jacket….

We know you guys are smarter than the first bullet, but please wear a PFD while running. There’s no excuse nowadays with hardly-tell-it’s-on life jackets like the Onyx inflatables.

Tip of the Day

One of Al’s favorite ways to catch ’em, and a great way to get bigger bites:

> Fact is, most walleye anglers start at the edge of the weed bed and work their way out to open water with live bait. Promise me you’ll do just the opposite on your next trip — instead put on a soft plastic minnow-mimicking lure and fish right in the weeds.

> In a perfect situation, I’m talking about scattered weeds in less than 12′ and typically I’m fishing in just 4-8′. You’re not doing a lot of casting — you’re allowing the bow-mount trolling motor to move you along — but you are snapping or ripping a lure through the weeds much like you would to catch bass.

> You’re depending on walleyes to visually see your soft-plastic lure darting through the weeds and react. That’s why braided line is important — it gets you through the weeds much easier. I’m using spinning tackle with 10-lb braided line and a 30″ fluorocarbon leader.

> My lure of choice is a 1/4-oz jig with a soft-plastic paddletail or split-tail minnow, and I’m snap-jigging the lure with fast erratic movements of the rod.

Al likes using 1/4-oz VMC Neon Moon Eye Jigs because they’ve got a wire-keeper barb on it that’ll keep your soft-plastics from tearing loose every time you rip it through the weeds.

Quote of the Day

If you were spotting and stalking whitetails, and glassed every inch of a field or valley without seeing anything, would you still sneak out there on your hands and knees just because it looks so good?

– Scott Glorvigan talking about trusting your electronics and not fishing memories (spots you’ve done well on in the past) if you go through ’em without graphing any fish.

Today’s ‘Eye Candy

If you’re forwarding Target Walleye/Ice to a friend who loves to walleye-fish or want your fishing buddies to get these emails, just send us their email addresses and we’ll take care of it! (We won’t sell the addresses, use ’em for spam, etc.)

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Target Walleye/Ice — walleye during open water and all species during hardwater — is brought to you by Al and Ron Lindner, Jim Kalkofen, Brett McComas and other diehard fish nuts like you! #fishheads

Brett McComas is the main man for Target Walleye/Ice. He was discovered in Brainerd, MN after years of wondering how in the heck people break into the fishing biz. He’s in it now, but still can’t answer that question…. Brett is one of those guys who quit sports in high school because they were interfering with his fishing time. Get him at brett@targetwalleye.com